Well lets see…where to start…I guess here in lovely Tanzania. On the 24th of September, 39 of us education volunteers all arrived. We spent a solid 24 hours in Philly, had a crash course in what was to come, hopped on a bus to New York City, hung out in the airport for half a day, and eventually, after some passport confusion made it on to our plane. 17 hours later, stopping for a few hours in Zurich, Switzerland, and briefly in Nairobi Kenya, we landed in Dar es Salaam. All of us tossed our two carry on bags and are two massive checked bags into the back of a truck and crammed together on two busses and were driven wildly around Dar for 30 minutes before being dropped off in the compound we stayed at for 3 or 4 days, called the Msimbazi Center.
Dar was strange and very brief. We sat through numerous lectures about what to expect, were given plenty of shots, and were told we would all get diarrhea at some point. We were watched a lot, especially when we decided to run around and play Frisbee. None of us had much of any langue training so we were basically incapable of communicating with anyone who did not speak English.
We took off for Morogoro city on the 29th, where we would be staying for about two months. Morogoro region is adjacent to Dar, and the city is about a 2 and a half hour drive from Dar (which is on the Eastern Coast of Tanzania). We got to our second compound called CCT around dinnertime, and set up shop at our new location. We spent another 4 days here before moving in with our respective host families. Those first few days were dedicated to language as well as a brief visit into the Morogoro city. Morogoro mjini is about a 45-minute walk, or a 10-minute Daladala ride from CCT. Everything about the journey into the city was quite an experience. The Daladalas are essentially the form of public transportation around cities. They are 15 person vans that hold anywhere between 25 and 35 people. Kids have no problem going in and out windows, and personal space is quite non-existent. There is a team of two guys working each Daladala; one is driving wildly and the other hangs out the sliding door, opening and closing it from time to time to cram a few more passengers on.
Eventually we got into the city, grouped up with 5 others volunteers and one Tanzanian to make sure we didn’t get completely lost. The town was wild- so many people everywhere and everyone seeming to be going somewhere, selling something, or just watching us confused to not only see one mzungu (white foreigner is a pretty solid translation) but packs of 5 of them walking all over the place. We spent a few hours checking out a few of the endless number of shops lining the streets, walking through the main market, and just trying to get a grasp on what was going on around us. It was one of the days that will be engrained in my mind forever. Especially walking through the market. Massive piles of rice, beans and flour. And the cages of chickens we pretty wild too…seemed like a 100 birds piled on top of each other in a cage that should probably have no more than 15 or 20 inside.
We went back to CCT for a day or two and prepared to move in with our host families. We were told none of the families would speak any English at all, and even if they did they would not speak English with us as to help our language progression. ). I found out I would be moving in with the Kazoka family, but nothing more.
On of the Peace Corps Volunteers that was with us during those first few days told us some stories about many of the miscommunications that she had heard about. One story included telling her family that there were so many “mboo” that kept biting her. She made the unfortunate mistake of using the word “mboo” rather than the word “mbu.” Instead of saying she was being bitten by mosquitoes (mbu) she was repeatedly telling her family she was being bitten by penises (mboo).
Luckily for me, I was spared many of these awkward situations because the majority of my family speaks excellent English. This does mean I most likely have not gained as many Kiswahili skills as some of the other volunteers who are most immersed. However it has been very nice to be able to really talk and connect with my family. My immediate family is Mama, Baba, and two younger brothers, Eliyuko and Steveni. But Tanzania households very seldom have just the immediate family. My dads “young brother” Vincent lives at the house two and I believe he is actually my Baba’s nephew. Vincent’s brother’s illegitimate wife also spends a lot of time around the house, and with mama cooking many evenings. I am not exactly sure what her relationship is, but illegitimate wife is the best understanding I have of who she is. The Kazokas are most excellent. Eli is in form 6 and was only really around for the first few weeks and is now at a boarding school just 30 minutes away so I don’t see much of him. But with Steven I spend most of my time at home. He is about 14, maybe 15 and just about to enter secondary school. Baba is an eccentric and hilarious man who loves to get a beer on most days unless he is taking malaria meds. Speaking of which, mama, baba and kaka steveni have all gotten malaria in the last two weeks, which does not bode well for me I don’t think haha. Anyways, I try to spend as much time with mama since she does not speak much English at all, learning how to cook. Usually she just tells me to mop the floor or sweep. Tanzanians really enjoy sweeping the outside, which I have yet to figure out. It seems to me that they are just moving around the endless amounts of red dirt, but I do it anyway to make mama happy.
The other day I discovered an interesting new beverage here. Helping around the house, I grabbed what used to be a white polo shirt of some kind, but was now the color of red dirt, dipped it into a bucket, and joined my brother (who had red dirt colored sweat pants) in mopping the floor. My other brother was using a fagio, a broom that consists of maybe 30 2 foot straw needles, to sweep thousands of ants into a pile and out of the house. I would say after clearing the room of the small ants, they took up a volume of almost a blow up football. My other brother and I continued mopping and moved outside to wash our clothes. That can be for another time though. Breakfast was some chai tea, and 3 slices of bread and ants. Tasty and nutritious. The ants are wild around here. When I take a spoonful of sugar, the spoon appears to be moving as the dozens of little ants make a break for the handle to avoid certain death in my hot tea.
The food here I think is spectacular. Lots and lots of rice and beans. Super easy to make, but the beans take about 3 hours to make start to finish unless they are soaked over night the night before. Cooking is also completely different than from home. Everyone here cooks using a charcoal jiko. And the main ingredients for every meal are usually salt and oil. They do make this delicious side dish called Kachumbali, which is diced tomatoes, green peppers, onion, hot peppers, and sometimes some cabbage. Might not sound super delicious but Tanzanians do not like to eat uncooked veggies so it is a very fresh change. My family usually eats it on the same night we have pilau, a ginger flavored rice, which is amazing. Sometimes some mystery meat is tossed in that I tend to steal clear of because the meat tends to have too many hidden bones to sift through for my liking. Some of the others foods we have for dinner include chipsi (which are just fried potato wedges) and ugali (which I don’t really know, is just corn flour and water heated up really hot, stirred for hours). Ill come back to food a little later though, back to the run through of life thus far…
All 39 volunteers were split into CBT (culture based learning) groups. Each CBT would stay together for the two months in Morogoro and go 5 days a week for intensive language training and internship teaching at their 8 respective schools. Of the 8 CBT’s, 7 are within walking distance of their schools. I however am in the one that is too far to walk to each day so we were given bikes to take to school. At first I was pretty pumped to be able to bike around to school each day, and don’t get me wrong it is very beautiful, but biking was not all I thought it was cracked up to be. I have ridden my bike to and from school probably 20 times so far since being here and have had between 5 and 10 flats. I have patched it and re patched it, but the roads are just not meant for biking. The other small downside to having our CBT school at Kayenzi is during our journey to school we have to pass some sort of industrial building that I am convinced is producing poop. The smell is so rough, even when I breathe through my mouth I can taste the poopy suds. The other downside is that being white we tend to stick out quiet a bit as it is, but cruising around on our trek bikes, with our speed helmets makes us seem like we could very well be from another planet. Just the other day we were riding back from school and in passing two small Tanzanian boys, they pointed at us and started crying because they were so scared and confused. Even with the flat tires, poopy taste and alien role I do get one of the most amazing views each morning. The Uruguru mountains are directly in front of my the majority of my 20 minute bike ride, and the air coming east from the coast creates some amazing clouds that tend to circle the peak of the mountain every morning. And apart from the mountains, the terrain is so flat I can see for miles and miles in each direction. Pretty beautiful, so I really cannot complain much at all.
On to school. Kayenzi is the name of the secondary school my CBT convenes at during the week. The first two weeks we dedicated solely to language training. The last two weeks, and one more week to come, include a mixture of language and internship teaching. Oooh, since we go each day for about 7 hours, we have a lady the cooks for much of the school cook for us as well, and the menu we have looks something like this:
1. Chipsi mayai na pilipili kali
a. (fried potatoes with hot chili sauce)
2. Tambi na njegene
a. (Spaghetti and peas)
3. Chapati, ndizi, maharage, na pilipili kali
a. (tortilla, banana, beans and hot chili sauce)
4. Wali na maharage
a. (Rice and Beans)
5. Ugali samaki na maandazi
a. (Ugali, fish and like sweet bread stuff)
Good stuff all and all. Ummm back to Kayenzi. The transition into teaching was a little strange. We arrived at Kayenzi to start our language training during one of the school’s breaks, and where as at many schools there are a few kids that tend to leave a little early before break or return a bit late after break ends, this was generally the trend for the teachers. So we were not really able to observe any Tanzanian classrooms with teachers before beginning our internship teaching. Also, the majority of the students have learned very little English before they begin Form 1 (After primary school, secondary school begins with Form 1, and ends with Form 6, if the students can pass a Form 2 and Form 4 national exam called NECTA). But once they begin secondary school, all the classes with the exception of Kiswahili are supposed to be taught in English. Without the teachers around it was quiet hard to figure out, at least for me, what my physics students had done so far this year, and how long it had last been since they had had a teacher. Nevertheless, after doing some detective work with students’ notebooks I decided they had learned a little bit about relative density as their last topic.
So internship teaching began, and I thought I knew who to teach, and thought I knew what they had last learned, so I was feeling pretty solid, expect I realized that I had no textbook, which was no good at all. After asking around for a few days I was finally given a textbook covering all the physics material from Form 1 to Form 4, which I have been teaching out of since I started the internship. The teacher for Form 1 physics did arrive a few days ago, and gave me a more up to date and better book to use, and it turn out teaching states of matter was correct, but I was teaching them things they really did not need to know. Oh well... all in all the teaching has been very interesting and made me realize how important it will be to stop mumbling, and improve my Kiswahili skills so if I am getting as many blank stares I received the last few weeks, I can clarify in Kiswahili.
Ohhh I did get to go on a safari the other day with the volunteers play the tourist, which was cool. Hopefully I will be able to send you a picture. Maybe not though. But we saw everything, it was really crazy- elephants, giraffes, a hippo in the water, zebra for days, water buffalo, lots of baboons, oh and even saw a few lions eating something by the watering hole. Solid all around.
One more funny story since I have a bit more free time today. I left my computer out today because there is only really one charger in the house and it is in the main room. I had to run to the market to get something, actually to get an avocado because I wanted to show mama how to make guac, which was delicious and hilarious to watch her try it like it was going to be poisonous. Anyways, when I returned later I found that my brother and my dads young brother had discovered photo booth. There was like 7 or 8 videos each about 5 minutes long of my little brother dancing to Smooth Criminal. All of which were actually really awesome; he is quite a good dancer. And then a few more videos of him sitting way, way to close to the camera and singing suuuper out of tune hahaha, which are probably my favorite. And then my dads young brother, who speaks no English at all, just talking at the computer. I am not really sure at all what he said, it is literally like 10 minutes long and he almost never stops talking, and he didn’t even really move. They also accidentally left the video running at one point and during part of it my mama walks in and since Michael Jackson was playing she started dancing unaware of the fact the she was being taped. I showed her later and she half jokingly threatened to beat me hahaha, so I fake deleted it, but its the best video ever so I of course could not...
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